Former Elizabeth schools employee admits to defrauding district

Steve Klaver/The Star-LedgerA reconditioned football helmet is spray-painted at Circle System Group in Easton, Pa., in this 1997 file photo.

ELIZABETH — They weren’t delivered via FedEx or in business envelopes.

Instead, the payoffs to a former equipment manager for the Elizabeth School District came as a secret line of credit which Robert Firestone admitted he used to buy more than $7,000 worth of personal items, including a flat-panel television and a radio system.

Appearing in federal court in Newark today, Firestone, 64, of Clark, pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit mail fraud through an Easton, Pa., company that sells and reconditions sports equipment.

Firestone is the third person to plead guilty in the investigation into the operations of Circle System Group, a company U.S. Attorney Paul Fishman said stole thousands of dollars from public schools throughout New Jersey while giving kickbacks to the local officials who helped them.

Firestone told U.S. District Judge Dickinson Debevoise he sent inflated invoices from Circle to the Elizabeth Board of Education between February 2006 and April 2007 for items purchased or services rendered. Instead of being refunded, the money was kept as a store credit that only the employees and Firestone knew about, Fishman said.

Court documents said Firestone accepted clothing, athletic apparel, shoes and other items, including a flat-panel television, a Bose radio system and digital camera.

In some cases, Circle sent the Elizabeth school board bills for items it gave to Firestone, Fishman said. Some of the invoices were for work that was not performed, he said.

In a November 2006 invoice, Circle billed the Union County district $70,910, but the district only got $53,290 worth of equipment and services, according to court papers. Circle used some of the remaining $17,619 to pay for $750 worth of clothing, athletic apparel and shoes Firestone had accepted nine months earlier, Fishman said. In December 2006, Firestone got the television and the radio system, valued at $3,545.

Firestone has been released on $50,000 bail and is scheduled for sentencing April 18. He faces up to five years in prison and a $250,000 fine.

Courtesy of ElizabethRobert Firestone

The investigation came to light when Circle’s former president, David Drill, pleaded guilty Dec. 22, 2008, to conspiracy to defraud New Jersey schools.

Last Dec. 16, former Long Branch High School athletic director Charles Ferrara Jr. pleaded guilty to conspiracy defraud the high school. Ferrara admitted he accepted more than $3,000 worth of items from Circle between January 2002 and September 2005 through the same inflated invoice and line of credit scheme that Firestone used.

Both men are awaiting sentencing as the probe continues.

Firestone, a popular high school sports coach in Elizabeth since 1976, was inducted into the Elizabeth Athletic Hall of Fame in 2007, when he was honored for his leadership of the high school’s cross country team which won two Watchung Conference titles, in 1978 and 1998, and a Union County championship in 1988.

He was also a longtime assistant boys’ basketball coach in the school district and later became varsity basketball coach at St. Mary’s High School in Elizabeth.